Indian Immunologicals produces 1 billion doses of FMD vaccine

HYDERABAD: City-based Indian Immunologicals Ltd (IIL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), has achieved a new milestone in the Indian vaccine industry, with foot and mouth disease (FMD) vaccine production crossing the one billion doses mark.

Set up by NDDB in 1982 as a part of the ‘Operation Flood’ programme, IIL has increased its FMD manufacturing capacity over the years. This benchmark puts IIL among the largest producers of FMD vaccine in the world.

“FMD is an economically devastating disease of livestock all over the world. It particularly affects cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and pigs; and is known to cause losses to the extent of about Rs. 3,000 crore a year in India. This disease has also resulted in loss of dairy and meat exports to FMD-free countries,” said KV Balasubramaniam, Managing Director of IIL.

“The vaccination drive against FMD got a boost when the Government of India initiated the FMD control program (FMDCP) during 2004 in 54 districts of Punjab, Haryana, UP, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. This is in addition to the centrally-assisted vaccination programmes of states. Owing to its huge manufacturing capacity and lower costs, IIL emerged as the largest supplier of FMD vaccine to this programme. IIL has also emerged as the leading exporter of animal vaccines in the country,” he said.

IIL produces many other animal vaccines such as tissue culture rabies vaccine, Theileria vaccine, Brucella vaccine and combination vaccines for Canines. It also plans to launch newer animal vaccines such as Blue Tongue vaccine, Tick vaccine, etc. The company has made successful forays into artificial insemination services and cattle feed production.  This makes IIL the only comprehensive animal healthcare and livestock productivity related products and services provider in the country.

Indian Immunologicals Ltd has entered the human vaccines segment through Human Biologicals Institute. (HBI), and produces anti-rabies vaccine (Abhayrab), Hepatitis B vaccine (Elovac-B), Tetanus Toxoid vaccine (Abhay Tox) and other combined vaccines such as DPT (Abhay TAG). HBI is one of the main suppliers of combined vaccines to Govt’s Universal Immunization programme (UIP). HBI’s unique micro- franchisee network of doctors, the “Abhay Clinic” has been celebrated as a model healthcare system in developing economies. HBI is also poised to launch a slew of new vaccines such as Japanese encephalitis vaccine, Chikungunia vaccine, Pentavalent vaccine (DPT+Hepatiti-B + Hib) etc.  These new vaccines will be manufactured at IIL’s new manufacturing facility at Karkapatla, Biotech Park being built at a cost of Rs. 150 crore.

Category: Business